


Clone Wars Ficlets

by barajatekara



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 23:37:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7128602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barajatekara/pseuds/barajatekara





	1. Chapter 1

A sweet secret

Clone Trooper Shen sat on his bunk and cleaned his blaster. He had undressed his armor and was only wearing his undersuit. Shen had had a long shift and his stomach was growling. He was in the city guard of Coruscant and today his squad had accompanied a demonstration. Some civvies were against the war. But they didn't offer a real solution. Not that Shen could see it. For him this was all a waste of time and resources. But his opinion didn't count. The whole business took longer than expected. There was a short riot, but they could calm that down. A Sargent got a stone against his neck, where the armor didn't protect him properly. But it was just a good contusion. Most clones didn`t have a high opinion about civvies. Shen saw them like nerfs, who needed to be taken care of for they own good.

Shen let his hand stroke through his short hair. He would shave himself today. The Clone Trooper with the Aurebesh Letter tattooed over his left eye, that symbolized his name, liked himself completely shaved. He felt neater and cleaner that way.

His stomach growled again loudly. Before he would eat, he took care of his equipment. His trainer on Kamino always said: "You take care of your equipment, then it will take care of you." It had become his daily ritual: after his shift, he controlled and cleaned his equipment, and then took care about himself.

Shen was rebuilding his weapon when his brother-among-brothers Easy approached. Easy was still wearing his armor and threw his helmet on the bunk over Shen. Easy could barely suppress a grin. Something was up. Shen put his blaster aside and looked his brother up and down. His armor was screaming for some water. Easy had a short beart and a redish haircut, which was far too long again. His hair was messy. Shen war sure, he did that on purpose. And the color was growing out. What kept the two of them together again?

„What's up?"

„Nothing. Everything is alright." Easy tried to sound relaxed und sat down next to Shen on his bunk.

Shen suspiciously eyed the soldier sitting next to him. Easy grinned wider. He put his hand over his mouth and looked around.

„Fine, come with me!" he jumped off the bunk, took Shen by his arm and pulled him up. Shen was directed into the freshers. Easy made sure, they were alone, then took a chocolate bar in blue and white wrapping out of his belt pouch and shoved it triumphantly under Shen's nose. This time he didn't try to mask his excitement. "With nuts." Explained Easy.

Yep, that was Easy. Shen couldn't suppress an eye roll. He crossed his arms and asked: "Where did you get that?"

„Calm down. I share with you."

„That was not the question."

"It is a gift!"

Shen had his doubts. "Really?"

"A boy starred at me, while I was on guard. Then he walked up to me and starred from close up. I was alone, because Mecky was showing a civvie the way. I didn't know, what to do. So I went down on one knee and asked him, if he was lost. I couldn't see any of his parents. And, mind you, he didn't say a word, but grinned and took a chocolate bar off his pocket und offered it to me. I didn't know, of he was serious, so I offered my hand and he put the chocolate bar in my hand. Then he ran off."

Shen shook his head. „Easy, you can`t take things from Civvies. That might be poisoned. Maybe he`s with some Seppies."

„A little boy? Here on Corrusant?"

„I don't know." Mumbled Shen a little angry. „It's against the rules."

„There are nuts in it" As if that would make it right.

Shen looked unbelieving at Easy.

„You are not going to report me in! I am your brother! Come on! When do we get something so good? I told you, I share with you!" whined Easy and shoved the chocolate bar again under Shen's nose.  
The packing was damaged and the content looked warm and mushy. But it was still a little treasure for a clone.

Shen gave in. „Fine, but we eat it after dinner." He really wanted to try that chocolate bar.

Easy wrapped him into a tight hug. "You are the best!"

"I am aware." Growled Shen half amused.

"This is our sweet secret, okay?" Easy put his arm around Shen's shoulders.

"You and your puns." Sometimes Shen could only shook his head. This time he directed Easy out of the freshers, after the chocolate bar was safe tugged away. Eventually Easy would get himself into real trouble. But without him, Shen wouldn't have not that much fun. He would take care of Easy and look after his back. That's what brothers did for each other after.


	2. Take cover

Take cover

Clone Soldier Shen stood before the closed doors of the medbay. He had given up to walk up and down. Medic Zero had tried twice to send him away. And now no one else tried that now, because Shen looked so grim. Every one of his brothers, who saw him, showed compassion, but no one wanted to be in his place. Too many brothers had been, where he was now, with a good or a bad ending. And to much more would have to stand before the doors of a medbay in the future.

Shen didn’t dare to lean against the wall. He didn’t dare to shift to a more comfortable position, as if that might influence what happened behind that doors. He stand at attention, arms clasped firm behind his back. One hand lay in the other. Shen wasn’t sure, if he could ever let go, even if he tried. Behind that doors, his brother-among-brothers Easy and the medics fought for Easy’s life. Shen was sure, without Easy, he would never smile again.

It had been a really quite shift. Easy, Mecky, Calm and himself had been assigned to control Civvies, who wanted to visit the government building and the senat. A thief tried to steal the bag of a woman. Another civvie interfered. When Easy tried to take control of the situation, the thieve had suddenly a blaster in his hands and shoot Easy from a short distance. Easy didn`t even have time to get his own blaster up, before he went down with a hole in his belly. The thieve was able to flee a few meters before Calm and Mecky got him. The thieve ended with a few broken rips, a crooked nose, without a few teethes and a shattered wrist in custody. Shen hadn’t take his turn on the thieve, because he had taken care of Easy. The medics had promised Shen, they wouldn’t treat the thieve, before they were done with Easy. And even then they would unintentionally forgot the pain killers. Clones could take something like that very personally. It was like that, if all soldiers of an army were brothers.

Then suddenly the doors opened and Zero came up to Shen.

„Okay. We are done. The rest is up to Easy.”

Shen nodded without saying a word. “Can I see him?“

„Yes, he is not in a bacta tank, because the wound was not that big. We put him back together and replaced the lost blood. You can stay, if you stay calm and quite. He is lying in the last bed on the right side.” Shen had nearly passed Zero, when he stopped and lay his hand on the shoulder of the medic. “Thanks, Zero.” The medic smiled half sided. „This is my job, brother.“

The medicbay was half full. Two clones seemed to sleep, on starred with his eyes open to the ceiling, a brother without a leg tried to walk a few steps with the help of another medic and a crutch and to clones had visitors. Years long training kept Shen to recognize his surrounding while thinking of something else. In the last bed in the far corner lay Easy unusual quite. Shen knew, that he was still anesthetized. Still this was not Easy. Shen stopped to his bed.

Easy looked calm and sleeping. He was covered up with a blanket, but Shen could see his bare shoulder, so this meant his upper body was without clothing. A tube with a clear liquid disappeared under the blanket, presumably an infusion of some kind. A monitor showed Easys heart beat and his breathing. He was ghostly white. Shen lifted the blanket. There was a very big bacta patch over his belly button and the area over and right from it. Shen let go of the blanket and got himself a chair, that stood nearby. “If you die, I kill you.” He whispered half loud and took his brothers hand. “Don’t you dare to leave me alone here.” Shen’s next shift would start at oh seven hundred. Until then he planned to stay here. Even if he would regret that tomorrow. No medic tried to keep a clone away from a bed of his brother. It was easier to teach an bantha to walk on two feeds.

~~~

Two hours and a imagined eternity later the medbay was much quieter. The visitors where gone, most patients seemed to sleep, two played cards and one clone read on his datapad. In the meantime a clone with a broken arm was treated.

Zero approached and looked at Easy’s vital signs and the bacta patch. “Looks good. It’s going to be alright.” He slapped lightly on Shen’s shoulder. „My shift is over, Breaker has the next. He’s better than his name implies.” That sounded like a joke, which Zero told often. Shen forced himself to smile. Zero took a ration bar out of his belt pouch and gave it to Shen. “Ask Breaker for water. You can have one of the empty beds. You are going to wake up, if something happens, or Braker will wake you up.”

Shen nodded. “Thanks. I think, I will sit here for a while.“ Shen turned, when Zero indicated to go. “Really, thank you, Zero. I appreciate everything.“ He gave Zero a wink with the ration bar. Zero grinned and left the medbay.

~~~

The hairless Clone soldier woke up with a start, when something in his hand moved. He needed a moment to realize where he was and why. The medbay was silent apart from a snoring brother. It was softly lit now. Someone had put a blanket over Shen, even so he was wearing a full amour. And Easy was grinning.

A heavy weight fell of Shen’s heart. Shen pressed softly Easy’s hand.

“You are an idiot.” Creaked Easy.

„Why?“ Shen was confused.

„That’s not comfortable.” Easy moved carefully over, without setting off the alarms of the monitor, which recorded his vital signs. Then Easy lifted his blanket.

“Take cover.” Ordered Easy. Shen huffed, but followed the invitation.

It was no rare sight, when two clones shared a bed, a meal or anything else. Everyone would just see two brothers, who had nearly lost each other.


	3. A clone with poor spelling

A nearly five and a half years old clone cadet with the number CT-02/21-5803, shorten to CT-5803, mostly known to his closer brothers as Zero-Three, was hanging over is datapad and studying the Aurebesh Alphabet. It was the worst for him. He had needed an eternity to learn to connect letters to syllables. And it had been even more difficult for him to connect letters to words. By now he could read very well, but writing was still unbelievable tough for him. He confused the sequence of letters in a word, or he forgot one or two letters altogether. He couldn’t memorize the right order of the Aurebesh letters. Yesterday had been a quite unpleasant day. In a test he’d been very bad, the content of the test had been 89 % right, but the spelling was just bad. Today he had to spell words, but had failed to do so. Then he had to say the alphabet before his brothers, and after seven letters, he had already forgotten one. He had been scolded and was told, that he should have learned that by now. In all subjects Zero-Three achieved or even over-achieved the standards. But not with writing. The language wasn’t that much of a problem, it was the spelling.

„Leth, Mern, Nern, Osk,…“ repeated Zero-Three the letters without looking on the datapad.

CT- 5847 kept him company. „You forgot Nen.“

„Nern, Nen, Osk, Oren, Peth…“ again Four-Seven needed to correct him. „Orenth, not Oren“.

Zero-Three couln’t surpess a curse: „Stang!“ Slowly he became impatient with himself. „Osk, Orenth, Peth, Qek, …. er … erm … Ren…“

„Resh.“

„Resh!“ hissed Zero-Three. Four-Seven lifted his hands calmingly. Zero-Three huffed and let down his datapad. „I never going to make it.“

Even with Flash Training he had difficulties with the Aurebesh Alphabet. His Trainer Malek Aradian, before whom he had to say the alphabet this morning, had been irritated and had berated Zero-Three heavily before all the other cadets. As punishment he had to run 30 laps around the training field, even after the normal training and before dinner.

~~~

The next morning after a half awake night Zero-Three and Four-Seven stand at Attention in a rows beside their brothers. Four-Seven stand a row before Zero-Three. Before they got their breakfast, all cadets had to assemble and they were announced the course of the day. Because there were many clones in training in Kamino, they got their meals throughout the whole day. A elaborate training ensured that every minute of the time of the young clones was well used and that different training units didn’t get in each other’s ways. There were only that many trainers and many clones, so every trainer had different training units. There were accurate records and a reminder system, so no clone escaped the system. However oblivious a trainer was, intended or unintended, a clone never got around his assessment. This meant, this morning trainer Aradian got a reminder by the system, that Zero-Three had to repeat the Auberesh Alphabet. After a short introduction, there was a disciplining of three cadets, who were found walking around after curfew. After that a cadet named Maus needed to come forward to explain the difference between a B1 and a B2 battle droid and how to defeat the latter. He made only one mistake. That was enough to get him 25 pushups.

After that was Zero-Three’s turn, but before he could walk up to the front, Four-Seven managed to press his arm slightly.

Zero-Three stand at attention before trainer Aradian. „Aurebesh Alphabet.“ The trainer barked.

Zero-Three began: „Aurek, Besh, Cesh,…“ The young clone starred at the ceiling and tried to ignore everything around him. It worked well, until he came to the end. Resh, Senth, Trill…“

“Stop.” The trainer yelled. „What did you forgot?“ The trainier now stand directly before Zero-Three. In his head he repeated the letters. Rest, Senth, Trill … what was wrong? Zero-Three began to sweat.

The young clone had no idea. His stomach began to head down to his knees. “I don’t know, sir.” Answered Zero-Three so loud and confident as he could. He didn’t want to show weakness. “You don’t know?” repeated trainer Aradian. „No, sir.“ A long pause followed.

„SHEN!“ the Trainer suddenly yelled. This letter he had forgotten. “40 Rounds around the training field. Before eating. Tomorrow you can do it, or else…“ Again a long pause followed. “Dismissed.” Zero-Three obeyed. It was the „or else“ the scared the young clones most.

 

~~~

After the training Zero-Three was running his rounds. He had send Four-Seven to eat, even when he persistently tried to stay with him.

Zero-Three didn’t see trainer Malek Aradian and another trainer, who didn’t join long ago, walk past the training field. Trainer Aradian stopped and looked after Zero-Three.

“If he isn’t able to cut it tomorrow, we need to start over with him.” Aradian said thoughtful to the relatively new trainer Mat Vorlan.

“You mean reconditioning?” asked Vorlan.

„Yes, his writing skills are far behind his peers. His linguistic development is good. But in tests, he makes to much mistakes.”

“It’s not that they need to write poems on the battle field.” It was a valid remark.

„Yes, but that are the quality standarts.”

Trainer Aradian gave his datapad to Vorlan to read the file on Zero-Three. “68 %. That is not good. How did he get through until now?“

Aradian took a deep breath and started to explain: „A low rate in one or two areas are tolerated for a time. But it shouldn’t stay that way. In the beginning everyone below 95 % in one area was counted as failure.”

“That’s insane. That failure rate must have been enormous. Keresch told me, nearly half. Luckily they came around and saw that most kids catch up.” 

“This are no kids. You can’t think like that.“ hissed Aradian. „They are products. Or else you are going to loose it. Look at Skirata. He drinks every night.“ 

„I thought because his family turned away from him.“ thought Vorlan loud.

Aradian shrugged. „Maybe both. But it is economicly idiotic to to throw them away because of such mistakes. Someone told me, in the beginning they even sorted those out, who had the wrong shade of brown in their eyes. Even when no one will ever see them with their buckets on their heads.”

A few meters away from them cadet CT-5803 came along, he shortly looked at them, the concentrated on his route again.

“And this one? What is with him?” Vorlan asked.

„He has a good hit ratio with his shooting abilities. Not phenomenal. That doesn’t justify a deferment.”

“I don’t like this.” Vorlan announced.

“That’s irrelevant. You get used to it. It’s not like they kill them. He just starts over in another group.”

Both trainers headed off. Aradian had no idea how close he was to the truth was. 

~~~

That evening Zero-Three was hovering over his datapad.

„… Resh, Senth, Trill, Thesh,…

„… Shen…“ corrected Four-Seven.

“Oh Stang. Shen. Shen. Sehn…“ Zero-Three bashed his hand against his head. “Get in there! Idiot! … She … eeehhhn! Sheeeen. Shen.“ He repeated.

„Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Nern, Nen, Osk, Oren…th, Peth, Qek, Resh, Senth, S….. Stang! S….., Sh…. Shesh? Shell? Stang! Stangstangstang…”

“Maybe you should take the nickname Stang”. Four- Seven chucked nervous. Zero-Three looked at him sinisterly. Four-Seven really wanted to help him, but his jokes weren’t helpful. „Okay, let me think.“ Four-Seven said. „Shen sounds like … like ac-tion. Shen – in action. Remember that. That’s easy!“

„Everthing ins easy for you.“ growled Zero-Three.

“You are better in Shooting.” Said Four-Seven.

“Maybe you should tattoo the letter Shen in your face. Then you never forget that.” Proposed Four-Seven.

“Very funny.” 

~~~

The next morning the cadets were standing in rows again before their trainer. Zero-Three’s stomach felt somewhat funny. He had practiced half of the night and after that dreamed confusing things. After the usual announcements and disciplinaring Zero-Three looked over to Four-Seven. His friends smiled back. Than Zero-Three’s number was called up.

“You can do it, SHEN!” hissed Four-Seven. He used the letter like an name. Zero-Three looked confused back at him. Four-Seven gave him a thumps-up.

„Aurebesh Alphabet.“ Ordered the trainer again. Zero-Three took a real deep breath, looked ahead and began. Then there came the part, where he had his difficulties.

“…Qek, Resh, Senth, Sh…en, Trill, Thesh,…”

Zero-Three did it. His heart was fluttering. He did it.

“Okay, back at your place.” Said Trainer Aradian. Zero-Three couldn’t suppress a sigh. When he was back beside Four-Seven, he was grinning. Zero-Three was relieved…no, Shen was relieved. Shen grinned from one ear to another. There were worse nicknames. And this one marked an overcome challenge, a first victory in the life of a young soldier. And without knowing, the first time Shen had escaped death.

~~~

Shortly after the stationing in the city guard on Corusant, Shen had his letter tattooed above his left eye. CT-5847, who called himself Easy now, couln’t stay serious for a whole week.


End file.
